智能手机给我们带来了很多便利，也占用了我们很多时间，导致我们读书的时间越来越少。有鉴于此，有家公司发明了故事售卖机，免费提供各种小故事，让我们重温在纸上阅读的感觉。
Short-story vending machines coming to London
by Alison Flood
Weary city workers will have a new way of passing the time on their commute once the UK's first short-story vending machines are installed at Canary Wharf this month.
weary /ˈwɪəri/ adj. 疲惫的
commute /kəˈmjuːt/ n. 上下班的路程
vend /vend/ v. 售卖
install /ɪnˈstɔːl/ v. 安装
Canary Wharf 是伦敦的一个商业区
Dispensing one-, three- and five-minute stories free to passers-by at the touch of a button, the vending machines are made by French company Short édition. They already feature in locations across France, in Hong Kong and the US, where Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola was such a fan that he invested in the company and had a dispenser installed at his San Francisco restaurant, Cafe Zoetrope.
dispense /dɪˈspens/ v. 分发
passer-by 过路的人
feature /ˈfiːtʃə(r)/ in something 成为某物的特色
director /dɪˈrektə(r)/ n. 导演
invest /ɪnˈvest/ v. 投资
dispenser /dɪˈspensə(r)/ n. 分发器（由dispense加上表示人或物的后缀-er）
San /sæn/ Francisco /frænˈsɪskəʊ/ 旧金山（美国城市）
The three machines being unveiled in Canary Wharf are the first in the UK. Covering genres from sci-fi to romance and children's fiction, the stories will be by authors including Virginia Woolf, Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens – and the initiative launches with a specially commissioned one-minute tale from bestselling novelist Anthony Horowitz. He plumped on writing a whodunnit for the machine, and admitted it had been a challenge to condense the genre into such a short form.
unveil /ʌnˈveɪl/ v. 首次展示
cover /ˈkʌvə(r)/ v. 涵盖、包括
genre /ˈʒɒnrə/ n. （艺术作品的）类型
sci-fi /ˈsaɪfaɪ/ n. 科幻小说
romance /ˈrəʊmæns/ n. 爱情故事
initiative /ɪˈnɪʃətɪv/ n. 新计划、新方案
launch /lɔːntʃ/ v. 开始、启动
specially /ˈspeʃ(ə)li/ adv. 专门地（由special加后缀-ly变成副词）
commission /kəˈmɪʃ(ə)n/ v. 委托创作
tale /teɪl/ n. 故事
bestselling /besˈselɪŋ/ adj. 畅销的（由best和selling组成）
novelist /ˈnɒv(ə)lɪst/ n. 小说家、小说作者（由novel加上表示人的后缀-ist）
plump /plʌmp/ v. 做选择、做决定
whodunnit /huːˈdʌnɪt/ n. 侦探小说
condense /kənˈdens/ v. 精简、浓缩
form /fɔːm/ n. 形式
"It was the challenge of writing a story that could be read between two stations – not just a short story but a very short story," he said. "Because I love mystery and whodunnits, the question of if it would be possible to write a proper whodunnit with a solution which made you smile in such a short amount of space was irresistible. The whole notion amused me." He said it took three or four days to write his story, The Death of Mr Robinson.
irresistible /ˌɪrɪˈzɪstəb(ə)l/ adj. 无法抗拒的
notion /ˈnəʊʃ(ə)n/ n. 想法
amuse /əˈmjuːz/ v. 使开心
"What appealed to me was that I travel on the Tube every single day and I see everybody buried in apps and games, or looking at old tweets," said Horowitz, who is currently working on the television adaptation of his Alex Rider books. "So the idea of using that little chunk of your day for something that entertains you, something which is, with a very small 'l', literature, is appealing."
appeal /əˈpiːl/ v. 吸引、使感兴趣
the Tube 是伦敦地铁的名字
single /ˈsɪŋɡ(ə)l/ adj. 单个的（表示强调）
app /æp/ n. （手机上的）应用程序
tweet /twiːt/ n. 一条推特消息（类似于一条微博）
currently /ˈkʌr(ə)ntli/ adv. 目前、现在（由current加后缀-ly变成副词）
adaptation /ˌædəpˈteɪʃ(ə)n/ n. 改编、改编的作品（由adapt加后缀-ation变成名词）
chunk /tʃʌŋk/ n. 一部分
entertain /entəˈteɪn/ v. 娱乐
literature /ˈlɪtrətʃə(r)/ n. 文学
The Canary Wharf Group said it had been prompted to install the machines after new research found that members of the public were not finding time to finish books. The research, which polled 2,000 UK adults, found that 36% had given up on at least one book in the last year due to lack of time, and 30% had not finished a book in over six months.
prompt /prɒmpt/ v. 提示、促使
poll /pəʊl/ v. 民意调查
"We're all guilty of saying we're too busy, but our research found that a staggering 70% of us would rather get lost in a good book than get lost down the rabbit hole of social media," said Lucie Moore, head of arts and events of the group. "Our short story stations provide the perfect digital antidote – a return to analogue scrolling."
guilty /ˈɡɪlti/ adj. 有负罪感的、自责的
staggering /ˈstæɡ(ə)rɪŋ/ adj. 令人震惊的
lost /lɒst/ adj. 沉迷的
down the rabbit hole 指陷入某种难以摆脱的困境
antidote /ˈæntidəʊt/ n. 解药
analogue /ˈænəlɒɡ/ adj. 不用电脑技术的
scroll /skrəʊl/ v. 滚动屏幕
（如果您发现某些行的最后一个单词被分成两半了，请把您使用的浏览器升级到最新版本就能正常显示了。）
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